In recent years, vehicle drive supporting systems that include a camera mounted on the motor vehicle have been proposed. In many of these systems, a camera is used to collect forward data in a vehicle running direction, e.g., forward direction, to provide information for safety to the driver and/or to facilitate automatically performing a vehicle control operation or the like. For example, thermal imaging night vision cameras can be attached to the front end of motor vehicles for assisting drivers in detecting pedestrians and/or animals.
A camera shutter is utilized in a wide variety of camera applications to generally control when electromagnetic radiation, e.g., light, reaches the camera's imaging system. For example, a camera shutter may be employed in a thermal imaging night vision camera to calibrate or normalize the infrared sensor. In particular, thermal imaging night vision cameras include a sensor that is sensitive to light in the infrared region. However, such sensors are affected by temperature and need to be continuously recalibrated. These camera systems typically include a camera shutter mechanism that includes a paddle that can be temporarily positioned in front of the sensor to block the incoming light and that effectively act as a black body for recalibrating or normalizing the sensor.
It is desirable for a camera shutter mechanism to possess certain features or functions, such as low-cost and ease of manufacturing, small and lightweight, low power requirements, and reliability over an extended period of time, frequency of use, or wide temperature range. There is a need to improve such features or functions of camera shutter mechanisms and cameras that include shutter mechanisms.